Newsletter: February 2025
Bringing you the latest from the Alliance for Conserving Freshwater Ecosystems—community updates, insights, and opportunities to support freshwater ecosystems.
Hello and welcome to our newsletter!
Two months into 2025, there’s a lot of exciting movement across the Alliance. Plans are turning into action, new collaborations are taking shape, and our collective efforts to conserve freshwater ecosystems are gaining momentum.
In this edition, you’ll find updates from across our Circles: the Upper Bhima Collective is rolling out its Conservation Action Plan with pilot projects; the Mainstreaming Mindset Circle is crafting fresh ways to engage partners, funders, and many others; and the Technology + Data Circle is building tools to turn ecological and community insights into action. We also share thought-provoking reads, including a powerful piece on how climate disasters impact mental health. Finally, with February 2 marking World Wetlands Day, we thought there was no better time to celebrate the incredible ecosystems; so this month, we’re featuring artist Nina Grauley, whose illustrations bring these landscapes to life!
New here? If you’d like some background on what the Alliance is all about—how we’re organized, what we’re working on, and how you can get involved—check this out:
Upper Bhima Collective
The Upper Bhima Collective is a growing network of organizations, experts, and citizen forums dedicated to conserving the Upper Bhima basin’s freshwater ecosystems. Formed in 2023, the Collective is moving from planning to action, working together to restore river ecosystems and empower communities.
— What’s happening?
The Upper Bhima Conservation Conference, held at the Agharkar Research Institute, Pune (Oct 22-23, 2024), marked the official launch of UBC and its Conservation Action Plan (CAP). The event brought together researchers, funders, government officials, and practitioners to collaborate on solutions for river rejuvenation, water governance, pollution control, groundwater management, and biodiversity conservation. A detailed report on the event’s key takeaways is on the way :)
Furthermore, the restoration of the Indrayani River is also gaining momentum with a structured, phase-wise plan, and a pilot project supported by L’Oreal Foundation. Meanwhile, local voices from downstream communities are shaping conservation efforts for the Man River, ensuring their perspectives are heard and acted upon.
+ What’s coming up?
The UBC is steadily finding its rhythm with regular meetings and a clearer focus on areas for impactful action; the group is gearing up for workshops in Sangli and Satara while strengthening partnerships with government and private stakeholders. The Collective is also collaborating with the Nadi ki Pathshala initiative to train community volunteers on rivers—covering their anatomy, ecosystems, water laws, and the links between river health and human well-being.
Mainstreaming Mindset Circle
This Circle is all about getting freshwater ecosystem (FWE) conservation on the radar of key stakeholders across sectors, including funders and decision-makers; members are focusing on laying the groundwork for outreach and awareness-building on FWEs.
— What’s happening?
The Circle is finding creative ways to align FWE conservation with funders’ priorities, focusing on both quick wins, as well as long-term impact. Large-scale, landscape-level events are proving to be great tools for expanding reach and sparking new opportunities. To make FWE ideas more accessible, the Circle is crafting a 10-slide deck that breaks down complex topics into a compelling, easy-to-grasp narrative.
+ What’s coming up?
With a refined strategy and funder engagement plan in the works, 2025 will bring new insights for the Circle, from ongoing partnerships, helping fine-tune the approach and amplify the message.
Technology + Data Circle
This Circle is all about using technology and data to drive impact; members of the Circle aim to transform spatial data, ecological metrics, and community feedback into tools for storytelling and change.
— What’s happening?
Members of the Circle are developing web maps for river basins across India, alongside prototypes like an Ecological Health Index (EHI) and a Community Scorecard (CS) to monitor basin health. A centralized knowledge hub for freshwater conservation is also in the pipeline, making research and insights more accessible. But data alone doesn’t drive change—stories do as well; that’s why the Circle is also focused on making data visualization and storytelling a core part of their work.
+ What’s coming up?
Building on their current scope of work, the Circle is working on defining a path for the coming months, which will include refining the aforementioned tools, gathering feedback, and ensuring they’re practical and impactful for communities and conservationists alike.
Co-ordination Circle
The Coordination Circle keeps everything running smoothly across Circles (communication and branding, governance, etc.), while also engaging with the larger ecosystem concerning FWEs.
— What’s happening?
The Alliance’s new branding—designed by Vivek Sadamate—debuted at the UBC conference, capturing the essence of our mission beautifully. On the digital front, a website revamp is kicking off this month with a newly appointed consultant.
As the Alliance grows, a clear governance framework is essential to ensure transparency, accountability, and effective collaboration among diverse stakeholders. To this end, members of the Circle came together to build a governance document for the Alliance, providing a strong foundation and guiding its norms; this document will be featured on our revamped website shortly.
+ What’s coming up?
Policy plays a crucial role in FWE conservation; therefore, we’re exploring the creation of a dedicated Policy Circle. A draft concept is in the works, with discussions planned to shape its direction.
Meanwhile, the Alliance is also working on a strategic fundraising proposal to support our collective mission. Instead of seeking one large fund, this approach breaks down our needs into smaller, focused projects, enabling funders to directly support specific activities, and allowing us to build a diversified, yet sustainable resource base that will accelerate action on the ground.
Turning the Tide: Stories of Conservation Optimism
As we continue our journey in safeguarding freshwater ecosystems, we want to spotlight stories that inspire hope and action. Do you have a story of conservation success, resilience, or collaboration that has made a positive impact? Whether it's a community-led initiative, a policy breakthrough, or an innovative solution, we’d love to share it here.
If you have a story to contribute, please send us a brief summary (200-300 words) along with any relevant images or links. Let’s celebrate the wins—big and small—and amplify the momentum for conservation :)
Our Picks This Month
🧠 Through personal stories and the concept of "solastalgia," Sanket Jain sheds light on the growing mental health crisis in India's flood-prone regions. Their article explores how environmental degradation and climate disasters are impacting mental health, and highlights the vital role of community health workers in providing support: https://truthout.org/articles/indians-in-flood-prone-areas-are-on-front-lines-of-growing-mental-health-crisis/
📊 How does qualitative data play a role in furthering localised climate adaptation? Dive into how stories, lived experiences, and community knowledge are helping shape more effective, grounded climate adaptation strategies, with Ooloi Labs’ most recent webinar:
🌲 Follow the team over at Mossy Earth, as they bring together volunteers and experts to show how re-wilding, conservation, and ecosystem restoration initiatives are planned, executed, and tracked: https://www.youtube.com/@MossyEarth
Join Us
We’re excited to share that we’re working on a new website for the Alliance, which will soon allow you to sign up and join us online. Until then, if you’re interested in becoming a part of the Alliance, please email us expressing your intent at alliance@freshwaterecosystems.in—we’d love to hear from you!
This newsletter is a living document of our collective efforts. We encourage each of you to share ideas, feedback, and updates to help make it even more valuable; please feel free to reach out to us at alliance@freshwaterecosystems.in.